SOME CORNISH GARDENS. 219 



symmetry and condition also ; in short, just such as 

 yon would expect to see in the yards of the Lord of 

 Tregothnan, acknowledged, as he is, to be one of the 

 best, if not the best, of our judges and breeders. As 

 we gazed on these beautiful animals, and as they 

 gazed on us, I became suddenly self-convicted of a 

 life-long mistake and injustice. I had always con- 

 sidered that our old friend Homer displayed a 

 melancholy proof of his defective vision, and illus- 

 trated the statement, " Aliquando bonus dormitat 

 Homerus," when he called the belles of the Iliad ox- 

 eyed, ySowTrt?, but as I looked into the large, bright, 

 expressive orbs of these pretty Devons I began to 

 think that the old gentleman was right. 



Then, as we walked from the park to the rectory, 

 my companion showed me, one mile to our right, the 

 supposed site of the tomb of St. Geraint (Gerentius), 

 and told me how, during the excavations of the anti- 

 quarian, they found withered bunches of flowers sup- 

 posed to have been placed, as we place them now, in 

 the grave, and how he collected the seed and sowed 

 them in his garden, and these sleeping beauties woke 

 up after a trance of thirteen centuries, to wit, since 

 the days of King Arthur, and produced the same wild 

 flowers, which ever since then, and I know not how 

 long before, have sprung from Cornish soil. 



Believing in Eden as thoroughly as though I had 

 seen it, as undoubtedly as though no elegant and 

 clever sceptic, lighting his cigarette, after a costly 

 meal, before the excitement of his rubber, had ever 

 sneered at my simple faith ; believing that our love 

 of horticulture and our happiness in a garden are 



